CXXVI.
Baths of Ems, Duchy of Nassau, July 14, 1857.
About the time I left Luzerne, in Switzerland, the sympathies and anxieties of the public were highly excited by the report of fire and explosion in the railroad tunnel, which is to intersect that city with Basle. Twelve persons, who had volunteered in the rescue of upwards of forty workmen who were thus suddenly cut off, had perished in the attempt. When our passengers took the diligence to cross the mountain, in the depths of which the accident occurred, three of our number took a short cut across, hoping to obtain some information of the sufferers. It was melancholy to reflect that so many human beings were probably suffering the agonies of death under our very feet, without our being able to relieve them. I learned subsequently that thirty-three corpses had been taken out and interred. A horse was found slaughtered, but not eaten.
The Swiss cars are constructed after our American model; passengers see the scenery of the country better from them than from the coach cars generally in use in Europe.
A railway ride of three and a half hours, by express train from Basle, brings one to Baden-Baden, upon the west slope of the Black Forest, in one of the most beautiful valleys of Germany.
A few days’ sojourn, and I proceeded to Homburg, which is much frequented; but neither that place nor Baden-Baden was as full as I found them last year.
At Wiesbaden, however, I found larger multitudes than I had ever met there on my former visits. This I attribute in part to the facilities for play, newly granted by the Bank.
Having detailed to you, on former occasions, the baths, qualities and uses of the waters, amusements and excursions, it will be needless to go into repetition.
In addition to the plebeian movement, it would seem that royalty has turned out in every direction. The King of Bavaria and ex-Empress of Russia were at Baden-Baden; the Emperor and Empress of Russia are at Kissengen; the Grand Duchess Constantine and her suite live opposite to me, occupying the entire building called the Panorama, belonging to the Ducal Kurhaus, where I am lodging. Having seen all these imperial and royal personages in their own territories, my curiosity is not excited; but it is a curious spectacle for an American to witness the sycophancy and idolatry of the masses for crowned heads; and one naturally asks himself, “Are such people capable of enjoying any other institutions than those they have been educated to adore?”
Those who remain at Ems, do so ostensibly for health; and no waters in Europe are so valuable for bronchial diseases, incipient pulmonary disease, nervous complaints, and many other difficulties; the fair sex predominate.
The Russians have the privilege of travelling since the treaty of peace; the presence of the wife of the Grand Admiral Constantine has brought large numbers here. The other evening, on the occasion of her birthday, the Duke of Nassau gave a grand celebration. In the middle of the little river Lahn, which flows through the valley, opposite the quarters of the Grand Duchess of Constantine was an illuminated barge, with thirty musicians. The Swiss Cottage Restaurant, upon the hill-side, was brilliantly lighted; and on the opposite mountain-ridge was a display of Bengal lights, and other fireworks, which produced a pretty effect, much to the edification of visitors and the peasantry, who seemed to enjoy it highly. Last night a ball was given by this lady in the honor of the Russians.
One is elbowed on all sides by Dukes, Duchesses, Counts, Countesses, Barons, and Baronesses, and the whole aristocratic race.
The German aristocracy are easy and approachable. You find that you have made the acquaintance of your neighbor; cards are exchanged; you see, perhaps, the arms and title of a Count, Baron, or some high functionary or dignitary, in return for which you give him a plain American address, without a handle to the name.
The demoralizing and destructive practice of open gambling is only tolerated in the German duchies, and is a source of great revenue to their rulers. In France it is prohibited: Prussia has withheld the grant at her watering places: in Belgium it only exists at Spa: Sardinia has stopped it at Aix les Bains. But all the efforts of the great princes have not yet succeeded in destroying the system established at Baden-Baden, Homburg, Wiesbaden, and Ems.
Next month I go to Paris, and expect to be in the United States in September.
1858.
CXXVII.
Marseilles, France, Jan. 15, 1858.
I must apologize to many of my friends and acquaintances whom I could not have the pleasure of seeing during my last short sojourn at home, and also for my sudden departure, which was the result of cold and indisposition.
From the time I left New York, on the 25th of last month, I experienced no cold weather until recently in Paris, where the prevalence of the grippe, or influenza, induced me to take flight for a more congenial climate. Our passage by the steamer Fulton was one of the shortest and most comfortable winter passages I ever made. Christmas and New Year’s festivals were passed in Paris. The great city, as usual at this joyous season, was extremely gay.
The Boulevards, from the Madeleine to the Bastille, a distance of three miles, were lined on both sides with booths, offering every variety of fancy and useful articles for presents and use, as at this period all classes expect gifts and souvenirs, which tax the ingenuity in the selection, and the purse in the acquisition. In this manner several millions of francs change hands. The number of Americans is much less than usual this season, but at a ball given by our Consul in Paris, I should judge that three hundred of both sexes were present.
The crisis is less visible in France than in most of the countries of Europe. One would scarcely infer from the manner in which the theatres, operas and masked balls are frequented at the opening of the carnival season, that a money panic existed in the capital of France; in fact very little publicity was given through the press, as the Emperor had declared the thing a humbug, and not intended for his Empire. At the grand Hotel du Louvre, near the Tuileries, where I lived, I noticed that the number of arrivals kept up pretty well for the season. It is the St. Nicholas of Paris, and a stupendous structure, far exceeding anything of the kind in Europe as a hotel, for its style of architecture, decoration, magnificent marble staircases, luxuriant dining and reading rooms; the former has splendid crystal candelabra and six hundred gas lights at the six o’clock table d’hôte. It is better adapted for travellers who have been accustomed to warmer heated apartments in winter than most French hotels, as the halls and passages are heated by registers throughout. Russians, Americans, English and Hollanders are the best paying guests. The French, with more strict notions of economy, are unwilling to pay for the extravagant outlay and parade. The transition from the recent cold in Paris to the mild temperature of this region, which one reaches in the short space of twenty hours by rail, a distance of five hundred miles, is most striking. Here the almond trees are in blossom, and the silvery leaf of the olive has a more cheerful aspect. The contrast is more marked now than before the construction of the railroad; I once experienced a similar change, but after a tedious journey of four days and nights; the lightning line now accomplishes it in less than one day.
The community is now excited, as well as all France, at the recent attempt on the life of the Emperor, which, had it been successful, would have put all Europe in a blaze of revolution. Marseilles is particularly interested as a commercial port in the preservation of the existing dynasty, since its growing commerce with Algeria, as well as its other interests, would suffer by a change of government.
It has been suggested that the Emperor designed visiting Africa, and the project of railroads has been proposed. The Kabyle districts and warrior tribes having been subdued by the French troops, a good opportunity is offered of visiting the northern part of Africa; and, as I wish to escape the cold changes which occur even in Italy in winter, I have decided to embark for Algiers, where I shall find a race of Moors and Arabs differing perhaps from the Bedouins of Syria and Egypt, and find many monuments of Moorish architecture more antique than those of the Alhambra of Granada, and the Alcazar and Giralda of Seville, continued after the Arab conquest of Spain, I shall be able to judge of the effects and progress of French civilization over barbarism, and shall in addition have something to communicate.
I notice many changes and improvements, each time I return to this point of departure for Italy, Spain, Egypt, and other lands on the Mediterranean.